In the winter of 1807, while Berlin was occupied by French troops, the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte presented fourteen public lectures that have long been studied as a major statement of modern nationalism. Yet Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation have also been interpreted by many as a vision of a cosmopolitan alternative to nationalism.
This new edition of the Addresses is designed to make Fichte's arguments more accessible to English-speaking readers. The clear, readable, and reliable translation is accompanied by a chronology of the events surrounding Fichte's life, suggestions for further reading, and an index. The groundbreaking introductory essay situates Fichte's theory of the nation state in the history of modern political thought. It provides historians, political theorists, and other students of nationalism with a fresh perspective for considering the interface between cosmopolitanism and republicanism, patriotism and nationalism.
| Introduction |
|
ix | |
| Chronology |
|
xxxi | |
| Note on the Text and Translation |
|
xxxiv | |
| Suggestions for Further Reading |
|
xxxvii | |
|
Addresses to the German Nation |
|
|
| Foreword |
|
2 | (5) |
|
First Address: Prefatory Review and Survey of the Whole Work |
|
|
7 | (13) |
|
Second Address: General Remarks on the Essence of the New Education |
|
|
20 | (12) |
|
Third Address: The New Education, Continued |
|
|
32 | (12) |
|
Fourth Address: The Principal Difference between the Germans and Other Peoples of Germanic Descent |
|
|
44 | (13) |
|
Fifth Address: Consequences of the Difference That Has Been Established |
|
|
57 | (13) |
|
Sixth Address: A Historical Demonstration of the Principal Characteristics of the Germans |
|
|
70 | (11) |
|
Seventh Address: A More Detailed Treatment of the Aboriginality and Germanness of a People |
|
|
81 | (14) |
|
Eighth Address: What a People, in the Higher Sense of the Word, Is; and What Love of One's Country Is |
|
|
95 | (14) |
|
Ninth Address: Exactly Where in Reality New German National Education Should Start |
|
|
109 | (12) |
|
Tenth Address: A More Precise Account of German National Education |
|
|
121 | (13) |
|
Eleventh Address: Those Who Will Put This Educational Plan into Practice |
|
|
134 | (12) |
|
Twelfth Address: On the Means of Preserving Ourselves until the Achievement of Our Principal Aim |
|
|
146 | (29) |
|
Contents of the Thirteenth Address: Continuation of the Previous Observations |
|
|
158 | (17) |
|
Fourteenth Address: Conclusion of the Whole |
|
|
175 | (14) |
| Index |
|
189 | |
Isaac Nakhimovsky is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.
Bela Kapossy is Professor of Modern History, University of Lausanne.
Keith Tribe is an independent scholar.
